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If the second half weren't so spotty this would easily have gotten 5 stars from me.

I really loved this movie though. Everything about it. No seriously, just name any aspect of filmmaking and I can praise it nonstop. Gaga and Cooper are quite fantastic. News flash: Gaga can sing. But actual news flash: Cooper can sing. It's his best performance easily, but I think Gaga has a better shot at the Oscar and deserves it more.

"Shallow" is my favorite song, and the scene when they first sang it together is the scene in which I cried. But that ending... I was close again there.

I was so scared of watching this because I didn't want anything to tarnish Streisand's version of the film for me. Now, I'm so damn glad that I decided to watch it because I truly fell in love with it. Lady Gaga's acting is phenomenal in this, it's hard to imagine that this is her first film role. Bradley Cooper can sing! and this is easily his best film role to date. And the chemistry between the two stars is unquestionably present, so present that you'll instantly find yourself so immersed in the events of the film and its wonderfully built ambiance. i never really liked Bradley Cooper, but now I have so much respect for his artistry and craft. What an impeccable first directional debut!
1 month 1 week ago

It’s impressive for its performances, full stop. Cooper and Lady Gaga are both fantastic as both singers and actors. The sets, costumes and cinematography are all stupendous. Some of the songs are even very impressively written.

It’s also just really impressive that a film that gets so much right is so damned boring, predictable and preachy. The film talks a big game about having something to say and “reaching deep into your soul” and yet can’t do the same thing itself. It feels like a film without a soul. What are the start-to-end goals of either of these characters? Why do we want to root for them? The film retreads familiar tropes of alcoholism and the rock star life but neither gives the viewer little stake in the issues at hand nor a coherent message to take away beyond the cycle of drug and alcohol abuse and a thin parallel to music. I’m sorry, but it’s just...weak.

But in all honesty, despite these glaring gaps in its emotive intent, the film is very well put together. Like a pop song though, it’s an impressive package that pretends emotion, but is cavernously hollow beneath the service.